Previously Developed Land: Industrial Activities and Contamination, Second Edition

250 Pages·2004·2.714 MB·English

by  Paul Syms(auth.)

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Previously Developed Land
Industrial Activities and Contamination
Second Edition
Paul Syms
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© 2004 by Paul Syms and Blackwell Publishing Ltd
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Published under the title Desk Reference Guide to Potentially Contaminative Land Usesby ISVA 1999
Second edition published 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Syms, Paul M.
Previously developed land : industrial activities and contamination / Paul Syms. – 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Enl. ed. of: Desk reference guide to potentially contaminative land uses.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-4051-0697-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Brownfields–Great Britain. 2. Brownfields–Law and legislation–Great Britain.
3. Reclamation of land–Great Britain. 4. Soil pollution–Risk assessment–Great Britain.
I. Syms, Paul M. Desk reference guide to potentially contaminative land uses. II. Title.
HD598.S95 2004
333.77–dc22
2004007272
ISBN 1-4051-0697-2
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
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Contents
Foreword vii
Preface ix
Biographies xii
Part A Issues Influencing Redevelopment and Value 1
1 Introduction and policy context 3
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 Overview of government policy on sustainable
development and previously developed land (PDL) 10
1.3 Development agencies 12
1.4 Other organisations 18
1.5 Environmental Protection Act 1990, Part IIA 20
1.6 Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA) 24
1.7 Summary 34
Checklist 35
2 Approaches to valuation 36
2.1 Introduction 36
2.2 Recent and current research 39
2.3 Valuation of ‘non-investment’ properties 45
2.4 Stigma and the effects of ‘time’ and ‘information’ 48
2.5 Summary 55
Checklist 56
3 Barriers to redevelopment 57
3.1 Introduction 57
3.2 Fear of the unknown 57
3.3 Regulatory controls 62
iii
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iv Contents
3.4 Delays and increased costs 68
3.5 Stigma 72
3.6 Overcoming the barriers 74
Checklist 75
4 Recording land condition 76
Judith Lowe
4.1 Introduction 76
4.2 Information on land condition 76
4.3 The Land Condition Record (LCR) 79
4.4 The Specialist in Land Condition (SiLC)
Registration scheme 87
4.5 Conclusions 90
Checklist 91
5 A few legal predictions 92
Paul Sheridan
5.1 Introduction 92
5.2 Relevant laws 93
5.3 Economic and fiscal instruments 98
5.4 Energy and climate change 102
5.5 Corporate governance and financial reporting 103
5.6 Conclusion 104
Checklist 104
6 Modernising the British planning system 105
Ted Kitchen
6.1 Introduction 105
6.2 The component elements of the British planning
system 106
6.3 The passage of time 108
6.4 The Government’s case for modernising the British
planning system 115
6.5 The Government’s system – change proposals 116
6.6 Changing the culture of planning 118
6.7 The challenge of change 120
Checklist 123
7 Geographical Information Systems 124
James Cadoux-Hudson & Donna Lyndsay
7.1 Introduction 124
7.2 GIS and previously developed land 126
7.3 Using a GIS database to assist in the redevelopment
of PDL 134
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Contents v
7.4 Other historical datasets and maps 136
7.5 Current sources 138
7.6 Conclusion 141
Checklist 142
Part B Industrial Activities and Contamination 143
8 Industrial activities and their potential to cause
contamination 145
8.1 Introduction 145
8.2 The potential for contamination 148
8.3 The Land Use Categories – a brief description 153
8.4 Summary 154
Industrial Activities: contaminants, processes and
case studies 157
Airports and similar uses 158
Animal slaughtering and by-products 160
Asbestos manufacture and use 162
Concrete, ceramics, cement and plaster works 164
Disinfectants manufacture 165
Dockyards and wharves 167
Electrical and electronics manufacture, including
semi-conductor manufacturing plants 169
Electricity generating 171
Engineering 173
Explosives industry, including fireworks manufacture 176
Fertiliser manufacture 178
Film and photographic processing 179
Fine chemicals, including dyestuffs and pigments
manufacturing 180
Food processing, including brewing and malting,
distilling of spirits 182
Garages, including sale of automotive fuel, repair of
cars and bikes 183
Gasworks, coke works, coal carbonisation and similar 185
Glass manufacture 187
Iron and steelworks 188
Laundries and dry-cleaning 190
Metal smelting and refining, including furnaces and
forges, electroplating, galvanising and anodising 191
Mining and extractive industries 194
Oil refining, petrochemicals production and storage 196
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Organic and inorganic chemicals production 198
Paints, varnishes and ink manufacture 200
Paper and printing works, including newsprint 202
Pesticides manufacture 203
Pharmaceutical industries, including cosmetics and
toiletries 205
Plastic products manufacture, moulding and
extrusion; building materials; fibreglass; fibreglass
resins and products 207
Radioactive materials processing and disposal 208
Railway land, including yards and tracks 209
Rubber products and processing 211
Scrapyards 212
Sewage treatment works 213
Tanning and leatherworks 215
Tar, bitumen, linoleum, vinyl and asphalt works 217
Textiles manufacture and dyeing 218
Timber treatment works 219
Transport depots, road haulage, commercial vehicle
fuelling, local authority yards and depots 221
Waste disposal sites, including hazardous wastes,
landfills, incinerators, sanitary depots, drum and tank
cleaning, solvent recovery 223
References 225
Department of the Environment – Industry Profiles 231
Useful internet addresses 234
Index 237
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Foreword
Living in Hong Kong as I do, I am only too aware of the value of land
as a scarce resource and, in the context of any aspiring city, of the
need to find ways of releasing its latent development potential and
ensuring its overall contribution to the urban fabric. This is particularly
so in the case of previously developed or brownfield sites, which for
centuries may have been occupied by industrial or manufacturing
operations which have now fled to more suitable and cheaper environs
and have left behind serious issues resulting from contamination and
dereliction.
The challenges involved in bringing such land back into re-use
necessitate not only skills in the areas of decontamination but also a
clear understanding of all the aspects of the land conversion process,
be it relating to engineering or design, land use planning, viability
and financial analysis, project costing, a clear understanding of the
market or development, construction, marketing and management
skills. More particularly, it requires a team or consortium approach by
the client advisory team and an appreciation of the roles of each and
all of the professionals who can contribute to the success of such a
project.
In his book Previously Developed Land, Paul Syms aims to provide those
professionals not directly involved with remediation or treatment of
contamination with a better understanding and appreciation of the
role that such specialists can play and the contribution that they
make. It is therefore a welcome addition to the sources of reference
which support the case for a multi-disciplinary approach in such
instances, bringing together and blending the best from a whole range
of disciplines. In particular Paul highlights the benefits that can be
achieved when addressing the redevelopment of sites, hitherto occupied
by industry. Specifically, Paul is to be congratulated on presenting the
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viii Foreword
case in a clear and well argued way and I am sure his book will not
only be read by those wishing better to appreciate and as a result avoid
the problems that might be encountered, but also by those remediation
professionals who themselves require a quick reference guide.
Nicholas Brooke
President 2003–04
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
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Preface
This work may be seen as a substantially enlarged and revised
successor to the Desk Reference Guide to Potentially Contaminative Land
Uses, which was based on research undertaken over a six-year period
up to 1999 and is now sold out. My objective has been to produce a
book that will be of benefit to practitioners and students across the
wide range of disciplines concerned with our physical environment.
The book responds to UK Government policies that focus upon the
re-use of previously developed land in preference to the use of green-
fields. It is intended for use by developers undertaking, or contem-
plating, projects involving land re-use, as well as the members of
their professional teams. Valuation surveyors should find it of benefit
when deciding upon the extent to which current or previous indus-
trial activities may have affected land values. I hope that engineers and
environmental consultants will also find it to be a useful reference source.
As part of the Desk Reference Guide I produced a hierarchy table
‘intended to represent the likelihood of encountering contaminants which
will require some form of remediation’. In the preface to the guide
I acknowledged that some readers ‘may question, or even challenge,
the ranking or risk categorisation applied to the different industrial uses’
and I welcomed comments or suggestions as to how the work might
be improved.
Critics of the guide were extremely small in number and their
criticisms related only to questioning the assumptions used in preparing
the hierarchy table. For the most part the comments received were highly
appreciative, acknowledging the value of having, in a single volume,
such a ‘ready reference’ to the potential problems that may result from
our industrial legacy. A number of local authorities subsequently
went on to use the guide as the means for prioritising inspections of
land required as part of their strategies in implementing Part IIA of
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x Preface
the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Comments such as these have
encouraged me to produce the present work.
Previously Developed Land: Industrial Activities and Contamination
builds on the earlier work by including several chapters on topics directly
related to the re-use and valuation of land that has been previously
developed. As with the Desk Reference Guide the work is divided into
two parts. Part A – Issues Influencing Redevelopment and Value – opens
with an introductory chapter that sets the policy context and leads into
chapters on valuation, property development, recording land condi-
tion, legal issues, town planning and geographical information systems.
Several authors who are leading authorities in their fields have
contributed chapters in this section. Judith Lowe, an engineer and
advisor to various government departments and agencies, explains
the importance of maintaining accurate records of land condition.
Paul Sheridan, the Head of Environmental Law at CMS Cameron
McKenna, looks at the development of environmental legislation con-
cerning land contamination and associated matters. Ted Kitchen,
Professor of Town Planning and Urban Regeneration at Sheffield
Hallam University, discusses impending changes to the planning sys-
tem. James Cadoux-Hudson and Donna Lyndsay, from Landmark
Information Group, describe the role of Geographical Information
Systems (GIS) in recording and assessing land contamination. Dr
Simon Johnson, of Certa, kindly brought me up to date with regard to
the availability of insurance to cover land contamination and associ-
ated risks. I should like to thank them all for their contributions.
Part B – Industrial Activities and Contamination – examines indus-
trial activities, grouped into 39 categories, with brief descriptions of
the processes involved and the contaminants that might be found on
land previously used for these activities. The potential for contamina-
tion to occur exists at all stages in manufacturing activities, from the
delivery of raw materials, through the manufacturing process itself to
the disposal of wastes, and I should like to thank Iain McBurnie, one
of my dissertation students on the BSc Environmental Management at
Sheffield Hallam University for his excellent graphic, which clearly sets
out the problems.
As an addition to the brief descriptions, several leading site invest-
igation and soil remediation experts have contributed their own
thoughts on particular problems that might arise, including a number
of mini case studies. In particular I should like to thank Dr Tom
Henman at Enviros, Mike Smith at BAE Systems Property and
Environmental Services and Mike Summerskill at SEnSE Associates
LLP for their contributions.